By Daya Gamage – Asian Tribune Political Note

Washington, D.C. 02 July (Asiantribune.com):

Soon after the 2004 U.S. coup to depose President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti, Aristide’s lawyer Ira Kurzban, speaking in Miami, began his talk with a riddle: “Why has there never been a coup in Washington D.C.?” The answer: “Because there is no U.S. Embassy in Washington D.C.” This introduction was greeted with wild applause by a mostly Haitian-American audience who understood it only too well.

In Haiti 2004, 200 U.S. special forces trained 600 FRAPH militiamen (Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, a paramilitary group that has assassinated and tortured pro-democracy advocates) and other anti-Lavalas forces at a training camp across the border in the Dominican Republic. These forces then invaded northern Haiti and gradually spread violence and chaos across the country to set the stage for the overthrow of President Aristide.

All of the Countries which the U.S. Regime Changed” – Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya – have descended into brutal chaos.

In Iraq, hardcore Islamic jihadists known as ISIS have taken over much of the country.

Christians are being rounded up and killed, and Christian leaders in Iraq say the end of Christianity in Iraq is very near”. Washington’s Blog documented in 2012, Saddam Hussein – for all his faults – was a secular leader who tolerated Christians. He prevented Islamist extremists and Al Qaeda entering the Iraqi territory.

Libya has also descended into absolute chaos. The Asian Tribune gave wide coverage in 2012 how Al Qaeda entered to start consolidating authority in Libya.

Al Qaeda is now largely in control of Libya. With those reports, Asian Tribune during that reporting period carried a photograph of Al Qaeda flags hoisted over the Benghazi courthouse once Gaddafi was toppled.

Gaddafi was a secular dictator who tolerated Christians. Under militia rule, Libya has already begun to disintegrate. Libya’s chaos is spilling across the region. The country is awash with up to 15 million rifles and other weapons, and a report by the UN panel of experts in June 2014 found that Libya has become a primary source of illicit weapons. These arms are fuelling chaos in 14 countries, including Somalia, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and Niger.

The United States Senator Rand Paul, who is vying for the nomination to contest from his Republican Party in 2016 presidential election, said that toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has not stabilized the area, and has possibly made it worse.

Appearing on the widely watched NBC Sunday political program “Meet the Press,” last May 17 Paul said that the Islamic State group (ISIS), which has now taken control of much of Iraq and Syria, is “more of an aberration than even Hussein was.”

The toppling of Saddam produced “chaos,” which hasn’t abated with the rise of ISIS, he said. The move also “emboldened Iran,” which the United States and Arab allies believe is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, Paul argued.

He said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democrats’ frontrunner for the Oval Office, should be asked the same question since she was involved in the invasion of Libya, which toppled Moammar Gadhafi, leaving that country in “chaos.”

The U.S. carried out regime change in Iran in 1953 … which led to radicalization in the country. Specifically, the CIA admits that the U.S. overthrew the moderate democratically-elected prime minister of Iran – Mohammed Mossadegh – in 1953. (He was overthrown because he had nationalized Iran’s oil, which had previously been controlled by BP and other Western oil companies). As part of that action, the CIA later admitted that it hired Iranians to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its prime minister.

Political analysts and historians agree that if the U.S. hadn’t overthrown the moderate Iranian government, the fundamentalist Mullahs would have never taken over. Iran has been known for thousands of years for tolerating Christians and other religious minorities.

Noam Chomsky calls William Blum’s classic, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II, “Far and away the best book on the topic.” If you’re looking for historical context for what you are reading or watching on TV about the coup in Ukraine, Killing Hope will provide it. The title has never been more apt as we watch the hopes of people from all regions of Ukraine being sacrificed on the same altar as those of people in Iran (1953); Guatemala(1954); Thailand (1957); Laos (1958-60); the Congo (1960); Turkey (1960, 1971 & 1980); Ecuador (1961 & 1963); South Vietnam (1963); Brazil (1964); the Dominican Republic (1963); Argentina (1963); Honduras (1963 & 2009); Iraq (1963 & 2003); Bolivia (1964, 1971 & 1980); Indonesia (1965); Ghana (1966); Greece (1967); Panama (1968 & 1989); Cambodia (1970); Chile (1973); Bangladesh (1975); Pakistan (1977); Grenada (1983); Mauritania (1984); Guinea (1984); Burkina Faso (1987); Paraguay (1989); Haiti (1991 & 2004); Russia (1993); Uganda (1996);and Libya (2011).

And now Sri Lanka is on the road to de-stabilization since the U.S. engineered a ‘regime change’:

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was a strong leader despite his administration’s authoritarian tendencies and mostly surrounded by those who were blinded with absolute power and lack of foresight on foreign relations.

US assistant secretary for South Asia Nisha Biswal during her visit to Colombo since Maitripala Sirisena was installed in the presidency declared I am indeed excited to be in Sri Lanka and see for myself the energy that has the world talking about Sri Lanka and about Sri Lanka’s democracy and for all the right reasons.”

The remark about democracy was utterly cynical; The US currently fosters undemocratic authoritarian regimes for its own national security and foreign policy concerns. The U.S. wanted the ouster of Rajapaksa because of its orientation to China which was an obstacle to Obama’s Asia Pivot policy.

Those who worked very closely with American foreign service officers (FSOs) from the eighties through the turn of the millennium were aware that the United States never wanted the secessionist Tamil Tiger movement totally annihilated; it wanted it to be a ‘pressure group’ to check the Sinhalese chauvinistic tendencies of Sri Lanka, and maintain Sri Lanka within the American orbit which promotes ‘US Designs’ in South and East Asian region.

The Rajapaksa administration was an obstacle to American interests in the region, and ‘democracy’ and ‘good governance’ were the least the U.S. was interested.

The U.S. had a taste during the 2001-2004 era when Ranil Wickremasinghe occupied the position of premiership; his government was clearly serving the American interests; made Sri Lanka’s premier international airport available for the US to implement its prisoner rendition program transporting ‘enemy combatants’ to CIA Black Sites for enhanced interrogation – meaning torture – when even India refused that facility to the U.S.; sided with the U.S. at Doha Round of Talks against the wishes of the developing Third World nations; tacitly approved the Norwegian-engineered Peace Treaty (CFA) with Tamil Tigers in 2002 which helped the Tigers to strengthen itself militarily for later use.

Instead of calling the majority party (the SLFP) to form a government, President Sirisena who was indebted to the UNP which had fewer (43) number of parliamentarians appointed Wickremasinghe the premier completing the American ‘regime change’.

The state department which was under heavy counseling of Tamil secessionist elements from the eighties, and intensified since the defeat of the Tigers in 2009 never agreed to the national defense structure of the Rajapaksa administration which had more military presence in vulnerable areas in the former Tiger-held north and east of Sri Lanka.

The state department maintained an unusual cohabitation with the secessionist Tamil advocates and activists to destabilize the Sri Lanka state since the defeat of the Tigers through 2014 using the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva sponsoring several resolutions.

Obviously the U.S. wanted the Rajapaksa administration out to pave the way for Ranil Wickremasinghe – not really Maitripala Sirisena – to bring Sri Lanka into the American orbit.

And this ‘Regime Change’ has resulted in political instability and possible chaos in time to come. President Sirisena is torn between his onetime strong man Mahinda Rajapaksa who commands considerable backing from his SLFP party and the parliamentary group; it was not an ignominious defeat for Rajapaksa at the January elections for him and his close political backers to clearly manifest it through mass gatherings throughout the nation; at a time the country is facing a general election for 225 parliamentary seats, the political party of Sirisena and Rajapaksa is divided giving hopes to UNP’s Wickremasinghe; nevertheless, the UNP is not fully confident of gaining a majority in the next legislature possibly dividing power between Sirisena faction of the SLFP, Rajapaksa faction of the same party and UNP gaining more that what it has at present but short of absolute power; the end result can make the Sirisena presidency somewhat ‘disabled’ as the late Trotskyite leader Dr. Colvin R. de Silva prophetically told this writer and two other foreign service officers in 1987 over a luncheon at the American Embassy in a scenario of divided power.

There is a significant difference between the parliamentary and presidential elections in terms of the minority influence. During a presidential election, when the entire nation becomes a single electorate, the minorities – 11.5% Tamils, 6% Muslims and 5% Tamils of Indian Origin – exercised greater stakes in electing a president as was seen in this year’s presidential election in which a significant minority vote went to Sirisena to defeat Rajapaksa despite the latter polled heavily in the Sinhalese-majority districts. In the forthcoming parliamentary election the field is clearly divided among the three ethnic groups Tamil political parties in the north and east commanding a majority of seats there and the Muslim parties commanding a majority in the eastern, and to a lesser degree, in some southern predominantly Sinhalese districts.

This then is the consequences of the ‘Regime Change’ in January this year.

The country was moving forward despite certain authoritarian tendencies of the Rajapaksa regime which has since retarded due to uncertainty in the nation’s governance. Instability has crept in the way following the pattern emerged in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan when regimes were changed at the behest of the United States.

Even if Rajapaksa faction joins the Sirisena faction at the forthcoming parliamentary election to form a joint government, the Sirisena presidency may be disabled to some extent because of the Rajapaksa factor. If the Rajapaksa faction goes alone it could be a formidable factor within the legislature even it does not command a significant number.

Is President Sirisena intends summoning Wickremasinghe to form a minority government after August 16?

It was clearly manifested that Saddam Husain and Gaddafi exercised authoritarian power in their respective nations. Nevertheless, there was domestic stability in both Iraq and Libya, and external stability in the region. We see none since the US-doctored regime changes.

It is true that the Rajapaksa regime had authoritarian tendencies but there was stability within the nation while certain cautious attitude was taken in monitoring secessionist elements within the Global Tamil Diaspora who had moved closer to foreign policy handlers in Western Capitals.

Tracing the track record of the United States, it is the democracy platform it uses to interfere in the internal affairs of nations it considers hostile; the US ignores democracy and rule of law in countries strategically important to its foreign policy objectives and national security concerns. The CIA overthrew Mossadegh’s democratically-elected government in 1953 and installed the authoritarian Shah Reza Pahlavi for economic reasons. It overthrew the Indonesian regime in 1965 to install a dictator for strategic reasons.

Former Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry in his December 2009 senate report on Sri Lanka warned the Obama administration that Sri Lanka is in a strategic location in the India Ocean for the United States to cultivate her friendship.

The calculated move to dislodge the Rajapaksa regime was in the strategic interest of the U.S. in the Indian Ocean region. But the collateral damage is felt within the perimeters of Sri Lanka.

–              Asian Tribune –